OLD National Bancorp IN Buys New Holdings in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK)

OLD National Bancorp IN bought a new stake in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,983 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Graphic Packaging by 21.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,817,132 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $174,166,000 after buying an additional 1,354,359 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management boosted its position in Graphic Packaging by 3.4% in the third quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 5,084,404 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $113,281,000 after buying an additional 169,395 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in Graphic Packaging by 19.5% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 5,817,556 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $129,615,000 after buying an additional 950,904 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Graphic Packaging in the third quarter valued at approximately $883,000. Finally, Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Graphic Packaging in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,380,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.67% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Graphic Packaging

In other news, EVP Joseph P. Yost sold 70,000 shares of Graphic Packaging stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.20, for a total transaction of $1,834,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 205,231 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,377,052.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Graphic Packaging Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of GPK stock opened at $27.30 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $27.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 0.84. Graphic Packaging Holding has a fifty-two week low of $20.07 and a fifty-two week high of $29.50.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The industrial products company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.40 billion. Graphic Packaging had a return on equity of 35.66% and a net margin of 7.67%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. Research analysts expect that Graphic Packaging Holding will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graphic Packaging Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.47%. Graphic Packaging’s payout ratio is currently 17.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup upped their price objective on Graphic Packaging from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Graphic Packaging from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Graphic Packaging in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Graphic Packaging currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.44.

About Graphic Packaging

Graphic Packaging Holding Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, produces, and sells consumer packaging products to brands in food, beverage, foodservice, household, and other consumer products. It operates through three segments: Paperboard Manufacturing, Americas Paperboard Packaging, and Europe Paperboard Packaging.